Al-Shabaab is ‘using social media to intimidate West’
THE threats made against shopping centres in the West on social media by the Somalian terror ist group Al-Shabaab may be an attempt to maintain relevance in the attention of the public, according to a Scottish expert on cyber-terrorism.
David Mair, from Glasgow, is studying for his PhD on the subject at Swansea University and believes that the video that was posted over the weekend may actually be being used as an opportunity to prove that they, and their affiliated organisation Al-Qaeda, should still be feared in a time when they are increasingly being outmatched by the efforts of Islamic State.
Al-Shabaab, which carried out the deadly attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi in 2013 in which 67 people were killed and more than 170 others were wounded, has threatened similar facilities in the United States, Canada and here in the UK, and called on those loyal to them to carry out attacks.
However, Mr Mair questions their capability to carry out such an attack, saying: “Al-Shabaab is in decline. They only have around 7,000 fighters left.
“By using social media, Al-Shabaab is attempting to maintain control of the narrative,” he said. In the 2013 attack, the group used eight social media accounts to demonstrate the effectiveness of the attack, rather than share external images and reporting, in order to complete this same objective. In this way, they were able to directly engage with Kenyan nationals. “The attack in Nairobi and social media activity was more symptomatic of a regional dispute than an international attack,” said Mr Mair.
Mr Mair recently represented the UK at a NATO conference on the terrorist use of cyberspace recently in Ankara, Turkey. He spoke about the academic understandings of cyber-terrorism and in his second lecture he delivered a case study on the use of social media during the attack in Nairobi.
He believes the terrorist use of the internet to be dangerous to society.
He said: “In 2003, Taliban planners shared layouts of the military base in Basra and the attack on Mumbai in 2008 was coordinated via the internet.”
Until services improve the policing of their network, Mr Mair believes these outbursts will continue.